Getting home after discussing the novel The Savage Garden by Mark Mills at my monthly reading group,I decided to end the night with a viewing. Making a number of attempts since 2019 to see the movie since I picked it up, but something always interrupting my plans, I decided to turn my phone off, and finally get ready to enter this joyful house.
View on the film:
Finding Marc rushing down the street with a top-down perspective overhead shot moving to the hypnotic,free spirited Jazz score from Lalo Schifrin, (future composer of the Mission Impossible theme, with this being Schifrin's fifth credit) co-writer (with Pascal Jardin and Dead Calm novelist Charles Williams) / directing auteur Rene Clement & Elevator to the Gallows (1958-also reviewed) / his regular cinematographer of this period Henri Decae, lock Marc in to an ultra-stylized house of mirrors.
Running across the grounds of the of the house with long lens, narrow tracking shots and zoom-ins (long narrow shots being a major recurring motif in Clement's works) which build a claustrophobic Neo-Noir atmosphere, that Clement and Decae have shine by making all the car roofs see-through/ glass and dented with subtle light distortion, emphasizing Marc being unable to get a clear vision of Barbara and Melinda's true intentions, spiraled out by Clement with spectacular, experimental layered mirror shots, reflecting Marc's desires in a seductive dance number, that gets shattered by Clement into a startling, frenzy of freeze frames on Marc's hopes being left broken.
Escaping by the scruff of his neck from the hands of Vincent, (played with a snarl by Andre Oumansky) the screenplay by Jardin, Williams and Clement superbly adapt Day Keene's novel by giving Neo-Noir loner Marc a false sense of security in the confined location (closed off settings being a major recurring theme in Clement's films) as he is welcomed by Femme Fatale duo Melinda and Barbara, who the writers intelligently use to string Marc into doubt/ sense of ambiguity over the image of the relationship the duo present, which is wickedly cut by Melinda, when she reveals that Marc is banned from leaving this Noir castle.
Reuniting with Clement after Purple Noon (1960-also reviewed) Alain Delon gives a terrific performance as Marc, who Delon has enter the household with a anxiety of being caught by Vincent and his thugs, which gradually gets removed, as Marc becomes transfixed by Melinda and Barbara, until he suddenly gets clawed, at the moment Delon displays Marc finally having a glimpse of hope that he can get away free.
Sitting on opposite sides of the home, Jane Fonda and Lola Albright give outstanding performances as Melinda and Barbara, with Fonda displaying a self-aware seductiveness, as Melinda presents an innocent face,while slyly wrapping Marc round her little finger, and Albright glides round the location like a decadent heiress disconnected from the outside world, until an unexpected phone call causes Albright to leave Barbara screaming to the shattering of her house of joy.
View on the film:
Finding Marc rushing down the street with a top-down perspective overhead shot moving to the hypnotic,free spirited Jazz score from Lalo Schifrin, (future composer of the Mission Impossible theme, with this being Schifrin's fifth credit) co-writer (with Pascal Jardin and Dead Calm novelist Charles Williams) / directing auteur Rene Clement & Elevator to the Gallows (1958-also reviewed) / his regular cinematographer of this period Henri Decae, lock Marc in to an ultra-stylized house of mirrors.
Running across the grounds of the of the house with long lens, narrow tracking shots and zoom-ins (long narrow shots being a major recurring motif in Clement's works) which build a claustrophobic Neo-Noir atmosphere, that Clement and Decae have shine by making all the car roofs see-through/ glass and dented with subtle light distortion, emphasizing Marc being unable to get a clear vision of Barbara and Melinda's true intentions, spiraled out by Clement with spectacular, experimental layered mirror shots, reflecting Marc's desires in a seductive dance number, that gets shattered by Clement into a startling, frenzy of freeze frames on Marc's hopes being left broken.
Escaping by the scruff of his neck from the hands of Vincent, (played with a snarl by Andre Oumansky) the screenplay by Jardin, Williams and Clement superbly adapt Day Keene's novel by giving Neo-Noir loner Marc a false sense of security in the confined location (closed off settings being a major recurring theme in Clement's films) as he is welcomed by Femme Fatale duo Melinda and Barbara, who the writers intelligently use to string Marc into doubt/ sense of ambiguity over the image of the relationship the duo present, which is wickedly cut by Melinda, when she reveals that Marc is banned from leaving this Noir castle.
Reuniting with Clement after Purple Noon (1960-also reviewed) Alain Delon gives a terrific performance as Marc, who Delon has enter the household with a anxiety of being caught by Vincent and his thugs, which gradually gets removed, as Marc becomes transfixed by Melinda and Barbara, until he suddenly gets clawed, at the moment Delon displays Marc finally having a glimpse of hope that he can get away free.
Sitting on opposite sides of the home, Jane Fonda and Lola Albright give outstanding performances as Melinda and Barbara, with Fonda displaying a self-aware seductiveness, as Melinda presents an innocent face,while slyly wrapping Marc round her little finger, and Albright glides round the location like a decadent heiress disconnected from the outside world, until an unexpected phone call causes Albright to leave Barbara screaming to the shattering of her house of joy.